South Carolina police chief Reuben Santiago threatened to hunt down poster who complained about policing priorities

Priorities: Is chasing complainers on Facebook good use of police time?

A police chief threatened to 'hunt down and arrest' a man after he complained about policing priorities on Facebook.

Reuben Santiago, interim police chief in Columbia, South Carolina told resident Brandon Whitmer that his complaint - that local police were spending too much time chasing small time drugs offenders - left him with "reasonable suspicion" he might be a 'criminal' too.

The post, published from the official Columbia Police Department (CPD) Facebook account, was swiftly deleted from the social network. Readers initially assumed this was just another social media meltdown - and that some low level police employee was about to get the sack.

But in a bizarre twist, Chief Santiago once again took to his keyboard, announcing that the anonymous post had been written by him.

This caused further uproar in the Facebook thread, with many posters complaining that the Chief's threats broke the First Amendment of the United States' Constitution, which protects free speech and the right of citizens to petition lawmakers.

In a statement, the CPD's public information officer admitted the Chief had written the comments himself, but said they had been misunderstood.

"Chief was trying to say that he puts would-be-criminals on notice," he said.

"f you commit a crime or plan to commit one, CPD will work hard to investigate and press charges according to the law.

"It's easy for social media posts to be misunderstood"

Whitmer's complaint was made in response to a post published by the CPD bragging about the recent seizure of "$40k of marijuana" and arrest of its owner.

Whitmer commented that police time would be better spent tracking down "the people shooting people in [local district] Five Points instead of worrying about a stoner that's not bothering anyone."